Happy New Year, Ottawa!
We hope your holiday season was relaxing and restorative. Now, it's time to get to work. There is so much to accomplish together in 2020.
Looking ahead, we're sure you see many challenges and opportunities. Share what you want to see from the city in the months and years to come.
Click here to take our 2020 Priorities Survey and set the course for a year of progress on local environmental issues.
Please note that we have had to put the Tree Distribution Program on pause this year due to COVID-19.
Unfortunately, we have no free trees to distribute at this time. That being said, we were able to launch our very first Tree Fundraiser where we are selling tree saplings at an extremely reduced price! You can check out the Tree Fundraiser HERE.
The good news: Ecology Ottawa will be back at it in 2021 and 2022 distributing 15,000 native tree seedlings free of charge to Ottawa area residents in an effort to re-plant our urban tree canopy.
2019 was an incredible year. Together, we changed the local climate conversation, engaged thousands in work to protect trees and green up neighbourhoods, and worked to make our city a safer place for pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users.
As we head into 2020, we drew up a list of New Year's resolutions that will shape our work together in the coming months. All of Ecology Ottawa's work is grassroots and volunteer-driven. Thank you for making this possible with your volunteer time and financial support. We look forward to the exciting year ahead!
2019 was an incredible year. Together, we changed the local climate conversation, engaged thousands in work to protect trees and green up neighbourhoods, and worked to make our city a safer place for pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users.
At 47% of Ottawa’s community emissions, buildings make up the largest-emitting sector in our city. This has clear implications for municipal climate action. If Ottawa wants to meet its greenhouse gas reduction target of 80% below 2012 levels by 2050, emissions from buildings must be a major target.
As we approach the end of 2019, we can't shake the feeling - this was the year the ground shifted in the fight for climate action. We know that with all environmental efforts, progress can often be slow or halting. But too many good things happened in 2019 to be ignored. As part of the growing Ottawa environmental community, your efforts are the reason for the progress we're seeing.
The City of Ottawa launched the first stage of the light rail transit system in September 2019. Multiple issues arising soon after the inauguration, Ecology Ottawa and The Ken and Debbie Rubin Public Interest Advocacy Fund saw an opportunity to assess and shed more light on how light rail stations perform across a range of social and sustainability-related concerns. As a pilot program, Ecology Ottawa sees a need for further study of the challenges and opportunities surrounding the implementation of light rail in Ottawa, ongoing monitoring of the Confederation Line network, as well as for content that will help ensure the successful delivery of the second stage of the light rail. This is a first attempt at delineating several lines of evaluation, studying only two stations.
On Monday, November 25, Mayor Jim Watson and Coun. Stephen Blais launched the 2020-2024 Road Safety Action Plan.
To say this document was eagerly anticipated would be an understatement. For years, Ecology Ottawa and other local groups have been advocating for Vision Zero - a plan to eliminate severe injury and death on Ottawa's streets. Yet when tangible policy reforms for Vision Zero have been proposed - as in June 2019, with a motion from Coun. Catherine McKenney - council was told to trust in the process. The June 2019 Vision Zero motion was ultimately rejected by council. The reasoning was that road safety was already a city priority, and that Vision Zero was "just a brand."
Ecology Ottawa is meeting with community members at the Pineview Community Hub on Thursday, November 28th from 7-9pm.
Ecology Ottawa will be presenting the results from the audit conducted around Blair station where we evaluated how accessible the station is for pedestrians and cyclists. Click here to read the full report.
We are excited to hear participants' views on our results - What did we miss? What did we do right? Input received from the community will be shared with city councillors.
In spring 2019, as Ottawa’s Light Rail Transit system readied for launch, Ecology Ottawa began an audit to assess the state of active transportation (i.e. walking and cycling) connection points to two stations (Blair and Baseline).
Follow this link to access the final findings and recommendations on opportunities to build active transportation infrastructure, in order to make walking and cycling safer, more accessible and more convenient for all users.
On November 15th and 16th, Ecology Ottawa, Greenspace Alliance, Community Association for Environmental Sustainability (CAFES) and the Youth Climate Ambassadors hosted a workshop on Climate Solutions and Ottawa’s Official Plan. Individuals and organizations from all areas of the city, from the downtown core to the rural wards discussed and co-created targeted climate solutions that can help shape the Official Plan.
